On 1/8/2016 10:01 AM, KenK wrote:
When I hear thunder, or I'm temporarily away from my XP Home computer and
thunder is predicted, I turn the system and UPS off and unplug the modem
telephone line. Overkill? Before I did this I lost the built-in modem to a
nearby lightning strike (I assume).

However most businesses and many other systems are left on durng storms
evidently with no problems.

What do you do?

A lot depends on how the services (phone, electric, etc.) get to/into your
house. The rest depends on the proximity of any strikes! :

Here, our services are entirely below grade (we don't even have street lights)
so we see very little ill effects from storms. I have ~15 (?) PC's plugged in
all the time (usually behind outlet strips or UPS's) with at least 3 running
at any given moment. Five printers, four scanners, 9 monitors plus a slew
of oddball "peripherals".

And, that doesn't count the TV's and other bits of kit littered around the
house.

Only time I can recall a problem was living in Denver with overhead
services. A nearby lightning strike (close enough to "magnetize"
the TV!) fried the protection diodes in the no-name telephone.
(aside from the TV needing a wicked degaussing, nothing else in the
house was affected)